Precious they are not. Unlike so many other glass artists, Gene Koss could never be accused of producing works that were in any way frail, overly ornamental or unnecessarily delicate, and that may be a mixed blessing in a medium long associated with the Venetian predilection for frou-frou.
Gene Koss sits in his glass studio in New Orleans, working on vast glass sculptures and wondering how he ever got this far from the farm.
by Jessie Morgan, Tulane University Gene Koss artwork is unusual, not only because of its size (large), its weight (eight tons) or even its subject (farm machinery), but also it’s medium-glass. On Jan. 11, 1999, this Newcomb art professors innovative use of glass earned him the New Orleans Museum of Arts Delgado Society’s annual award…
Over the last 20 years, my work has focused on evoking Midwestern farm life. Working with a mechanical engineer and a project coordinator, I have developed techniques to transform my memories of the mechanized Wisconsin farm of my youth into foundry-based glass sculpture.
Two large sculptures and one small one were shown in the New Orleans artist’s first solo show in New York. Timber, Plow and Ridge Road Climb unveiled an artist of skill, intervention, and unexpected beauty.